Man.. I've been away for weeks and I'm swamped.... where do I start trying to catch up? New software, new facias... yikes.

Anyway, I thought I'd pop in and give you guys this link:

http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2002/11/a071102travelstar.html

IBM announced this Wednesday what it seems to be the "world's highest capacity mobile hard disk drive" at 80GB. The company informed that it could reach this level of storage by enhacing its patented "Pixie Dust" technology.

Besides the 80GB hard drive, IBM also revealed plans for launching a new 7200 RPM performance category in the same family. While the new offers don't arrive, the company is promoting the Travelstar 80GN, which allows up to 70 billion bits of data to be written on each square inch of disk space.

The company explained that this effect was achieved by "adding another coating of 'Pixie Dust'-- or an additional ruthenium/magnetic layer to create a five-layer sandwich called laminated-'Pixie Dust.'" IBM continues: "These additional layers bring about an even higher signal-to-noise ratio which allows data recording at ultra high densities while maintaining data integrity."

The 4200 RPM Travelstar 80GN brings a new 8 MB cache and drive operating acoustics reduced by as much as four decibels. According to a press release, this mobile HDD will be available in 20, 40 and 80 GB capacities. While the company has already begun to ship sample Travelstar 80GN drives to customers, volume shipment are scheduled for January 2003.

IBM talked further about the new Travelstar family, which includes performance speeds at 4200, 5400 and 7200 RPM. The company seems very excited about the introduction of 7200 RPM performance in a mobile hard drive through its Travelstar line. Additionally, the 5400 RPM mobile product line will be advanced to higher capacity and improved performance by the introduction of the Travelstar 80GNX, which will be offered in 20, 40 and 80 GB capacities. These offers are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2003.

Hate to break it to ya... but you got beaten to the punch. Check this thread.

Hmm... now that you gave the link, I remember reading that. I guess we knew they were coming, but now we know when? Anyway, I did a search on "80GB IBM" and that didn't come up.. weird.

Sorry for the clutter, but I guess the January thing is new.

Clutter schmutter. I was pointing you to that thread in case there was something in there that you didn't know.

That means the 60gb drives drop in price!

Anyone wanna say a Bill Gates-esque statement, like , no one will ever need more than 80gb's of mp3s?

no one will ever need more than 80gb's of mp3s?

You mean, no one will ever need more than 160GB's of mp3s?

There's already several 120GB Empegs out there with 2 60GB drives...And he's probally going to be upgrading to the 80GB drives when they show up.

I wonder who you are referring to...

Actually, I still have 7GB left. It depends on if I fill that before the new drives come out. Waiting for the audiobooks of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - that will take about 2GB at least (US & UK versions)...

Dude, how can you have that many mp3s?! I guess any song I could thing of would be in there, right?

Let's say someone who is 35 has been an avid music fan since he was 15, and has bought 3 new CDs each week. I would find this scenario reasonable.

So 3 CDs * 52 weeks * 20 years = 3120 CDs
If you pick an average of 10 songs per disc, you're looking at more than 30,000 mp3s. Depending on encoding quality, I think that could require a bit more than a stock 60GB empeg.

I currently have just over 2100 songs on mine, most of which are encoded at 320kbps, but it's not even half full yet.

Greetings!

Dude, how can you have that many mp3s?!

Persistance and obsession... A great combination.

I guess any song I could thing of would be in there, right?

Nah. My tastes tend to be a little eclictic. But then, probably no more so than a lot of other people on the board.

I would find this scenario reasonable.

Unfortunately, not completely true. I didn't really start getting into music until late high school / college. From there, CDs were just starting out. But, as I noted above - persistance and obsession. Obsession being an important part...

I must admit, I do look forward to the 80GB drives, but I finally got everything sync'ed just the way I like it... I may not be the first one to get the 160GB player. We shall see...

I wasn't trying to imply that my scenario was your story. I was simply attempting to put things into perspective. Someone who has been collecting music for years, or is obsessive , could very well have that many mp3s.

Having them and playing them is too different things.
Those of you with large collections:

What percentage of the songs do you listen to?

I would advise fitting the slow spin rate drives - less heat and noise. The empeg won't get much (or any) benefit from faster drives.

Rob

Having them and playing them is too different things. Those of you with large collections: What percentage of the songs do you listen to?

One hundred percent.

Reference here.

I currently have just over 2100 songs on mine, most of which are encoded at 320kbps, but it's not even half full yet.
I currently have 9,000 songs, most encoded with --alt-preset standard
I've got 7 GB left on my 60 GB player.

If you pick an average of 10 songs per disc,
My collection consists of 478 CD's for a total of 6,469 tracks.
Do the math and you get 13.53 tracks per disc.

Do the math and you get 13.53 tracks per disc.

Well that's great, Dave. I'm glad you were able to figure that out, since you know how many CDs you have and exactly how many songs you have that came from those CDs.

But, in my post, I was simply throwing out some made up numbers in order to prove a point. If you would like to raise the average to 13.53 tracks per disc, then my point is proved even moreso.

If I did out the math for my own collection, I'm sure it would come out to more than 10 tracks per disc average. I figured a conservative estimate would be good enough.

Reference here.
A very good point you made in that thread, Tony. And I find it completely true. I never owned a CD changer, and always carried a binder of CDs when I left the house. I believe the last one held 32 discs. I was always swapping out CDs; at least once a week. And there were some that just never made it to the car. Not because I didn't like them, but because I owned other CDs that I loved. Now I can hop in my car, hit shuffle, and be pleasantly surprised with songs I had forgotten existed, just like you said.

Since we are all bragging...

I have 16,500 mp3s on my 108GB player (60GB + 48GB) and I only have a few hundred megs left... I run sound for an improv comedy troupe, and everyone thinks our shows are scripted because I always have a perfect song to play as transition music into the next game or have the perfect song or sound effect or tv theme song to put into a scene.

My poor poor CD-Rom drive that had to rip all those.. the thing is a champ!

I have over 14,000 VBR MP3 on my Empeg 2 Player and I still have about 300 CD's to add to it but I am full (~128MB left) and I need either 2 new 60's or 2 new 80's to add my current and future mp3 to the player. I'm also using Pin Numbers to the fullest to get down to the CD or to the nearest track, This way I don't have to search for all of my music nor do my passengers.

See Ya

Actually I have 10,000 VBR's on my two 30's and I've got 6 GB left.
Your 300 CD's are only about 4200 songs, which would fit well under
an additional 30GB of disk space.

With Disk prices always falling,
you don't want to pay for disk space until you need it.

For examplee, my unit has two 30 GB disks.
I'll upgrade one of the disks to a 60 GB when my empeg is full and
I have an additional 30 GB of music to put on it.
No sense in buying a 60 GB disk prematurely just cause
I have a couple few extra GB that don't fit on the unit.

Then on the next upgrade I'll replace the other 30 GB with an 80GB
the upgrade after that, I'll replace the 60 with something else bigger,
so on and so fourth.
Unless my music collection get gets REALLY big in a short ammount of time,
I can't see needing to upgrade both hard drives at the same time.
Arguably, there's the "youve got the hood up, and you may as well" factor,
but swapping a hard disk isn't all that that hard.

This is my philosophy, anyway.
Obviously, you are free to do as you wish.